Police officer Accused of Perverting the Course of Justice Over Speeding Ticket

image credit walesonline.co.uk

Anthony Rees-Thompson, A police officer who has worked for South Wales Police for 10 years years (covert operations unit) has been accused of perverting the course of justice over a speeding ticket, he is on trial at Cardiff Crown Court and denies the offense.

Addressing the jury, prosecutor Meirion Davies said: “The temptation is to say ‘it is only a speeding ticket’, but it is more than that. “His reaction is more important than the speeding offence itself. He has made a deliberate attempt to con his way out of it.”

Mr Davies told the court of the following points

a speeding offense was committed on Fabian Way in Swansea 35mph in a 30mph zone at 12.31pm on March 20, 2013, in a Vauxhall Corsa owned and usually driven by the officer’s mother and step-father.

The owners of the car were on holiday in Spain at the time of the offense and it was Rees-Thompson behind the wheel.

when the speeding notice arrived, it is alleged that Mr Rees-Thompson pretending to be his step-father suggested in a letter to the camera center that someone else might be using the same number plates.

They say the officer then ordered new registration plates to disguise the car, before sending off photographs for it to be compared to the vehicle caught in the speed camera image.

when interviewed, he told officers he had no recollection of being in Swansea on the date of the offense, but subsequently admitted it was “quite possible”.

the police officer claims the number plates were “a cosmetic change, legitimately made” after noticing that one of the originals was damaged.

Mr Davies said: “The Crown’s case is that this defendant made a deliberate attempt to pervert the course of justice. “He has obstructed the police and actively sought to hinder or block a proper prosecution of him.”

The hearing was at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, but has been postponed and will start again on November 18.

Company Car Drivers More Likely to Exceed Motorway Speed Limit

According to an RAC survey, company car drivers are far more likely to exceed the 70mph motorway speed limit than private motorists.

The survey was based on responses from 1,526 British motorists.

Regularly exceed the limit

• Company car drivers 88%
• Private motorists 67%

Reached speeds of 80mph on motorways

• Company car drivers 62%
• Private motorists 32%

Hit 90mph or more on motorways

• Company car drivers 8%
• Private motorists 3%

When asked why they broke the speed limit, 31% of company car drivers said they were just following the general flow of traffic, while 19% put it down to the driving conditions being favorable. Meanwhile, 15% said 70mph felt too slow and 8% said that modern cars are built to go faster than the speed limit dictates.

As many as 65% of company car drivers felt it was perfectly acceptable to travel up to 80mph in a 70mph limit. As a result, some 90% say they would like to see the speed limit on motorways increased, compared with 69% of regular motorists.

RAC business services director David Aldridge said: "With the introduction of next generation 'smart motorways', where the hard-shoulder is open permanently or during busy periods, and variable speed limits enforced by verge-side speed cameras, there is a real danger that company car drivers may find themselves increasingly on the wrong side of the law and faced with growing numbers of points on their licence."

Google's Driverless Cars Designed to Exceed Speed Limit

Google's self-driving cars are programmed to exceed speed limits by up to 10mph (16km/h), according to the project's lead software engineer.

Google has tested its technology in modified cars

Dmitri Dolgov told Reuters that when surrounding vehicles were breaking the speed limit that going more slowly could actually present a danger and therefore the Google car would accelerate to keep up with thte flow.

Google first announced its driverless car division back in 2010, and has been testing its technology in modified cars built by other manufacturers.These cars have travelled on more than 300,000 miles of open road, (mostly in California).

The UK will be allowing driverless cars on public roads from 2015. Ministers ordered a review of the UK's road regulations to provide appropriate guidelines, these will include the need for self-drive vehicles to comply with safety and traffic laws, and involve changes to the Highway Code.

In May, the US tech firm said it would start building its own self-driving cars.Their electric bubble-shaped vehicles will seat two people, and to begin with they will be limited to 25mph (40km/h) to help ensure safety.

In a separate development on Monday, the White House said it wanted all cars and light trucks to be equipped with technology that could prevent collisions using radio signals which would allow the vehicles to "talk" to each other, and alert drivers to potential accidents

The label "driverless vehicle" actually covers a large range of different concepts. Features such as cruise control, automatic braking, anti-lane drift and self-parking functions already built into many vehicles offer a certain degree of autonomy. However term is generally used to refer to vehicles that take charge of steering, accelerating, indicating and braking during most if not all of a journey between two points, much in the same way aeroplanes can be set to autopilot.

Roads however are much more crowded than the skies, and a range of technologies is being developed to tackle the problem. One of the leading innovations is Lidar (light detection and ranging), a system that measures how lasers bounce off reflective surfaces to capture information about millions of small points surrounding the vehicle every second.

Another complementary technique is "computer vision" - the use of software to make sense of 360-degree images captured by cameras attached to the vehicle, which can warn of pedestrians, cyclists, roadworks and other objects that might be in the vehicle's path.

Autonomous vehicles can also make use of global-positioning system (GPS) location data from satellites, radar, ultrasonic sensors to detect objects close to the car and further sensors to accurately measure the vehicle's orientation and the rotation of its wheels, to help it understand its exact location.

The debate now is whether to allow cars, like the prototype unveiled by Google in May, to abandon controls including a steering wheel and pedals and rely on the vehicle's computer.

Or whether, instead, to allow the machine to drive, but insist a passenger be ready to wrest back control at a moment's notice.

Bad Positioning by Surrey Police

Found this fantastic video post on facebook which wont post on this blog but here is the link to the facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=780275445357708

"SURREY POLICE - parked illegally, dangerously, and obstructively to promote "Drive Smart" operation (oh the irony!)

Didn't get a ticket for this since I called their line manager and they were swiftly told to move on.

Before anyone says "you got nothing better to do" - well, no, not really... I have all the time in the world to question the practices of those in my employ.

Photos here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Surrey-Police-Accountability/277072372481638?fref=ts"

Speeding in Scotland Soared by Almost 40 per cent

THE number of drivers caught speeding in Scotland has soared by almost 40 per cent – well over the police’s target of a ten per cent increase.

A report by official watchdog HM Inspector of Constabulary revealed the figures and called for a return to officer “discretion” rather than a targets culture.

The report revealed a rise of 37 per cent in speeding offenses in the last nine months of 2013 compared to the same period the previous year, from 47,825 to 65,424. and revealed that officers were under pressure to pursue the “soft target” of speeding motorists.

Scottish Tory transport spokesman Alex Johnstone said: “It’s clear the targets culture for driving offences has taken priority and that can only come at the expense of the overall quality of policing.”

Police said no individual targets were set for officers, but activity was focused on areas of greatest risk.

Man Builds First Private Toll Road in Britain in at Least 100 years

Mike Watts with his Toll Booth Picture: SWNS

 Mike Watts was forced to drive around a section of the A431 between Bath and Bristol because a landslide had closed the road in February (a 10 mile detour). Council works were due to carry on until the end of the year on the stretch. Not wanting to wait that long, Mike who is a 62 year old businessman employed his own team of road workers and built a 365m-long bypass in the field next to the closed-off section.

Mr Watts spent £150,000 of his own money, to recoup this money he has set up a toll booth. Motorists are charged £2 to use the detour road (£1 for motorbikes). Regular users also have the option to bulk-buy 12 passes for £10. Most are happy to pay the toll to avoid the £10 mile alternative

Toll Road Picture: SWNS

Mike Said : ‘Building a toll road is not an easy everyday thing that people do, and in fact this is the first private toll road in Britain in at least 100 years. But I have had a 100 per cent positive response from the public on this. I think people are very grateful that we have taken the risk to keep pushing with this."